Re: Fastest secure erasing of HD's?

In <kW8kk.466$Ht4.2@trnddc01> Wes Groleau wrote:
Jolly Roger wrote:
The NewGuy <noemailhere@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So is there any faster way of making the data unreadable to average
people other than overwriting with zeros?

I used to erase cassette tapes with a bulk magnetic eraser. I wonder
if one of those might work on a hard drive without damaging it?

If you open it up, you get dust in it.
If you don't open it, the case "conducts"
the lines of force so that the field inside
is negligible.

Hard drives are normally made from aluminium so an external magnetic
field should penetrate quite easily.

Maybe if you put it next to one of those junk yard
car lifting magnets.

I saw a hard drive eraser advertised just a couple of days ago. Place
the hard drive on top, press the button, and 5 seconds later the entire
drive is erased. It also came with a pair of heat-resistant gloves,
presumably because any steel components would very quickly get hot in
such a strong alternating field.

But if you were successful,
it would no longer be usable. Some very low-level
formatting is put in with special controllers by
the manufacturer. This is necessary for the end-user
drive card to find the blocks the computer is asking for.

And this is why you don't see bulk hard drive erasers for sale at your
local computer store. The erasing is the last step carried out before
throwing the drive away.

--
Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand -> http://roger.geek.nz
.

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